CH 9: 3 Months Later
"97... 98... One more... 99... Grr... 100! Phew!" After finishing another set of push ups, Ah Li immediately fell down on the ground while panting, careful to not damage his adorable face, the only good thing about him.
"Good, good. You are improving." Bibi Dong, sitting a bit away, nodded calmly as she watched him :"Come on, drink some water to quench your thirst. Then you can go for the final set. Once you're finished with that, we'll start with five sets of crunches." Hearing her, even if tired, Ah Li still nodded seriously while panting and sweating.
Three months had passed since the Martial Soul Awakening and the awakening of Bibi Dong as Ah Li's Martial Soul. In the past three months, Ah Li had done nothing but cultivate, train in the Spider-Fu Martial Arts and use the physical exercises inside of it to train his body.
Originally, there really weren't any specific exercises for the body in this world. The best you would get was lifting something heavy and running around. Ah Li, being someone with more knowledge regarding this subject, obviously wouldn't just settle with that. No way in hell, not only is it extremely boring, but it's also useless and can barely do anything.
Sure, in the long run, it would help a lot. And in the long run, as in several years. However, Ah Li obviously wanted at least double the results with at least half the time. Just doing something randomly obviously had less results than focusing on a specific way. However, he couldn't just reveal that kind of knowledge in front of Bibi Dong and have her doubt and be suspicious of him.
But Crow, who had thought of this, had actually put the physical training methods in the martial arts book that he gave Ah Li. So because of this, not only did Ah Li train in the Way of the Spider with the assistance and guidance of Bibi Dong, but would also constantly train to develop his body. There were multiple reasons for that.
But the biggest reason was that the stronger the body, the higher the age of the Soul Ring that the Soul Master could absorb. And obviously, he wasn't going to just aim for Soul Rings with the average or low age. So his schedule had become two hours of physical training every day, a few hours of training in the Spider-Fu Martial Art, and simply cultivating without a break when not doing those. But he didn't do just that though.
He had also killed.
Not humans though. And definitely not animals like dogs and cats. But mostly birds and insects that he could get his hands on. At the moment, he couldn't kill a human. Not as in he wasn't able to. But because of the trouble that would most likely follow. So, for now, he didn't bother to kill a human.
When he killed them, he had figured out something. The evolution of his Martial Soul didn't need a random amount of killing. When he killed a bird, he found out that a status system page had shown up in front of his Abyssal Centipede Martial Soul inside of his Spiritual Sea. Not an actual system, just a status page.
He was happy that it wasn't a system. He really didn't like those. Anyway, when the status page had appeared in his Spiritual Sea, both he and Bibi Dong had looked and studied it. As the name suggests, it was a status page divided into different sections where it showed all of Abyssal Centipede's information, abilities, Soul Rings and Soul Skills which there weren't any, and the Death Count to Evolve.
Basically, they found out that every kill will add a "point" to the Death Count, and to evolve, Ah Li needed to gather a specific number of "points". And it wasn't a random number either. Everybody with different strengths would give a different number.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
(Death Counts To Evolve)
-
Trash Martial Soul -> Normal Martial Soul: 100
--------------------------
(Death Count)
-
Normal Human: 1
-
Normal Insect: 0.1
Normal Animal: 1
//////////////////////////////////
Once they had found out about this, both of them were really happy and a lot more relieved. After all, a clear goal is much better than just doing something at random and hoping to succeed. At first, neither of them knew how much Ah Li needed to kill to evolve his Abyssal Centipede. But now, all it needed was a simple math to figure it out.
With a groan, Ah Li sat up and walked over to the small barrel (?) of water that he had brought up. Picking up his cup, he began to drink in large gulps to quench his thirst. When he was panting and trying to cool down his body, one of the women who worked in the orphanage walked to the backyard, where Ah Li was training in silence :"Xiao Li, are you ready?"
"Huh? Ready for what, miss?" While panting, he looked at the woman with confusion, causing her to sigh and shake her head :"Obviously, for going to the Nuoding Academy. Didn't I tell you that it is today?"
"Oh... Oooh, yeah, you're right." Remembering the conversation yesterday, Ah Li nodded in realization. Glancing at Bibi Dong who nodded, he smiled and nodded at the lady :"Okay, miss. Just let me take a bath, then I'll get ready and go."
"Um, okay... By the way..." The young lady drew out her sentence before a small, dangerous smile formed on her lips :"If you'd want to, why not let sister help you bathe and clean up, hm?"
Hearing her, Bibi Dong froze up. Just like she had thought, the actual danger to the young boy who she was with wasn't Soul Masters or Soul Beasts. But the older women who would get dangerous thoughts whenever they saw the adorable, doll-like child.
"Ah Li, refuse it immediately." Without even a hint of hesitation, Bibi Dong, who knew what the shameless woman was planning, quickly ordered Ah Li what to do. No way, even if still somewhat salty because of becoming his Martial Soul, she had already decided to help him. And there's no way she'd let someone take advantage of the cute and sweet child's innocence.
"Ahahaha... Yeah, no. Sorry, sister, but I can do it myself." Ah Li smiled wryly as he refused politely. Sure, he was a horn dog. But still, he had taste, and the lady was nowhere near his standards. He wasn't someone who would just pick girls because they were there.
"Oh, okay... Then get ready quickly." With a disappointed sigh, the lady nodded and walked away with a smile :"Wouldn't want you getting late for your first day in school." Hearing her, Ah Li honestly wanted to attack her suddenly. This wasn't his old world. So basically, everything was the simple mathematics of plus and minus, multiplication and division, and simple common sense about the world, Soul Masters, Soul Beasts and such.
So he actually wasn't salty or annoyed at going to school. In fact, he was a bit happy and interested since this was the school of a different world, and even the big schools and such didn't have any bullshit that didn't need to be taught because it wasn't even learned. However, hearing the sentence "first day in school" still pissed him off.
He held himself back though.
"Alright, forget about the rest of the training for now." Bibi Dong said as she got up :"You should take a bath, clean yourself up, and then go to your school to learn new things. Remember, knowledge is also power. So learn as many things as possible. Alright, for now, I'll return to your Spiritual Sea and into my own Domain. Once you're in the school, I'll come out and accompany you."
"Umu, okay, Sister Goddess!" Ah Li nodded with a sweet smile, causing Bibi Dong's heart to grow warmer at the cuteness and pat his head with a small smile, causing him to smile happily as well and lean into her touch :"Good, good boy. Now run along and do whatever should be done before we go."
And with that, she disappeared into his Spiritual Sea and left Ah Li alone. The black haired boy didn't waste time either. He quickly emptied the small barrel of water and placed it where he had taken it from before getting ready.
-
"Hm hmm hm." Ah Li hummed a song softly as he walked towards Nuoding Academy. He had a bag on his back, containing clothes, some simple food and a little bit of money given by the orphanage when he finally left there. There were living places and rooms for students in the school, so Ah Li had gotten out of the orphanage and decided to live on his own.
He didn't have any friends or close ones in the orphanage, and there weren't really any benefits in staying there, so why not? This way, he can do whatever he wants without needing to bother with anybody.
While he walked, Bibi Dong was casually floating in the air beside him. Just looking around. After all, being inside of the Rakshasa Domain was pretty boring. So obviously, he wasn't going to let her miss the little drama of Tang San being an absolute retard and accepting Yu Xiaogang as his master just when he saw him. And obviously, no way in fuckin hell did he even have any idea of becoming Yu Xiaogang's disciple. Fuck that shit. Whichever MC has ever done that was a total retard. You want knowledge? Ever heard of libraries?
After walking for some time, and ignoring all the stares, he finally reached the Nuoding Academy's gate where the young guard in the original anime was. But as he was walking towards there, he saw an old man and a young boy of seemingly Ah Li's age next to him. Obviously, the two were the village head of Soul Saint Village and the original protagonist, old Jack and Tang San.
"Blue Silver Grass but has Innate Full Soul Power?" The young guard said in disdain and mockery before laughing as he looked at the letter of Martial Soul Hall :"Funny, that's hilarious! I've been working here in the school for 4 years, and I've never heard of a student born with Innate Full Soul Power before. Let me guess, you faked this letter."
When he threw the letter on the ground, old Jack was obviously angry and taken aback, so an argument broke out. Ah Li didn't stop walking towards them though. It was none of his business, so he didn't bother with them.
"Excuse me, brother." Once he reached them, he directly interrupted the argument. Once the three of them noticed him, all of them were taken aback. Ah Li's charm, even though very young, still was something else. And for these countryside people, they couldn't help but stare at him. If not for his common clothes, they would have honestly thought that he was from some big clan or something. They truly had never seen such an adorable young boy. But Ah Li wasn't going to care about the amazement of an old man, a retard, and a simple countryside guard. Bring some beauties, then he'd show off.
"I've come here to attend the school. May I go in? Here is my letter from Martial Soul Hall." As he graced them with the honor of hearing his sweet voice, he took a simple letter and gave it to the guard.
Looking at Ah Li's appearance, the young guard, after being amazed, was actually pretty annoyed. After all, who likes to see someone of the same sex more good looking than them? But still, seeing that he was just a child, and that he was already in an argument, he didn't bother Ah Li.
"Let me see." He said as he took the letter and read through it :"Ah Li, 6 years old, Abyssal Centipede Martial Soul, Innate Soul Power of 2. Alright, you're allowed to go in." As he nodded, he gave back the letter and opened the door for Ah Li to enter before scoffing at old Jack :"See that, you old beggar? He isn't shameless enough to fake his letter and Innate Soul Power, so I let him enter just like that! But you are shameless enough to not lie about this kid's Innate Soul Power! And not just giving it a random or reasonable number, just saying that it's straight out Innate Full Soul Power! Huh, I've never seen such shamelessness!"